Shares in the Cape Town-based company, which are down about 8 percent this year, were little changed at 108.50 GMT, lagging behind a 1.3 percent gain on the JSE All-share index.

After more than two years as investors’ darlings, South African retailers are falling out favour as doubts creep in about the health of debt-fuelled consumer spending and views that share prices have been pushed to unjustifiably high levels.

South African industry-wide retail sales slowed 2.8 percent year-on-year in March from 3.9 percent in February, official data showed.

Foschini, which sells the bulk of its products on credit, said net bad debt as a percentage of its debtors’ book increased to 10.5 percent from 9.4 percent in the previous year.